Critical Literacy, Power, and the Struggling Reader

• In Event: Roundtable Session 104
  In Roundtable Session: Exploring Issues of Literacy, Equity, Access, and Change in Classroom Settings

Abstract

Literacy research supports the use of critical literacy as a tool to empower minority adolescent students (Bartlett, 2005; Delpit, 2002). However, there is much less data about the responses of minority elementary students and those most vulnerable to academic failure, struggling readers (Juel, 1988). Thus, the purpose of this microethnographic study was to invite five, fourth grade minority students who struggle in reading to participate in critical literacy projects and to analyze the role of power “as knowledge” (Bloome, 2008) in the groups’ responses. Utilizing Critical Discourse Analysis with ten pivotal transcripts centered on racism, the findings revealed how participants negotiated, shared, and seized power in both their personal and public worlds (Bloome, 2008).

Author

• Courtney Marie Bauer, Dallas Independent School District